Many questions directed at outgoing Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Margaret Hamburg during a Senate budget hearing on Thursday concerned funding for the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and details of the law’s rules. The agency’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2016 asks for a total of $1.5 billion for food safety and nutrition,…
Budget Subcommittee Zeroes in on FDA’s Request for More FSMA Funding
The increased funding the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has requested for implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) in fiscal year 2016 was one of the key topics of discussion Wednesday during a House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee hearing. 
Food-Safety Advocates Applaud Increased FSMA, NARMS Funding
Food-safety advocates were pleased to see increased funding for the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System for Enteric Bacteria (NARMS) in the $1.1-trillion spending bill President Barack Obama signed on Tuesday. The bill provides almost $2.6 billion in discretionary funding for the Food and Drug Administration, including $903 million…
Foodborne Illness Victims Request Additional FSMA Funding
Victims of foodborne illness and their families are urging Congress to appropriate additional funding for implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). Several Congress members and plenty of food safety advocates have written to the leaders of the House and Senate appropriations committees this year asking that they increase FSMA funding in the next…
Public Health Groups Ask Congress For More FSMA Funding
On Wednesday, the first day of the new federal fiscal year, 16 public health organizations wrote to the heads of the House and Senate Appropriations committees urging Congress to add $50 million to the Food and Drug Administration’s budget so the agency can fully implement the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). “FDA estimates that it…
Why FDA Needs FSMA Resources Now
(Editor’s note: The following is in response to “Experts Debate Whether Food Safety Funding is Adequate,” published April 24, 2014, on Food Safety News.) Two questions regarding the adequacy of food safety funding for the Food and Drug Administration were asked at last week’s National Food Policy Conference. …
Experts Debate Whether Food Safety Funding is Adequate
At the National Food Policy Conference in Washington, D.C., this week, a panel of experts discussed the impact of funding deficits on food programs. Martin Delgado, staff director of the House Appropriations Subcommittee for six years, spoke about how sequestration – the automatic across-the-board budget cuts in effect for most of 2013 – impacted the…
HIMP Debate Sneaks Into FY 2014 Budget Negotiations for USDA, FDA
Members of the Safe Food Coalition and the Worker Health and Safety Coalition wrote to members of Congress this week, asking them not to reduce the budget for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety Inspection Service and to remove language from the funding bill that urges the agency to move forward with its proposed…
Obama Administration Seeks FDA Funding Increase for FSMA Implementation
The Obama administration is requesting cuts at most agencies in its 2014 budget, released on Wednesday, but seeking a significant increase in funding at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to help the agency implement the monumental Food Safety Modernization Act.
While the administration’s budget is very unlikely to be enacted, it underscores the White…
Congress Passes Bill to Avert Meat Inspector Furloughs
The House on Thursday passed a continuing resolution that will head off furloughs for U.S. meat inspectors that would have taken place this summer as a result of the sequester. The measure, introduced by Sens. Mark Pryor (D-AR) and Roy Blunt (R-MO), passed the House by a vote of 318 to 109 today after breezing …